


This is What You Came For

by LokisGhost



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:34:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21595819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokisGhost/pseuds/LokisGhost
Summary: Sitting in Adrien’s large shower, Marinette hugged her knees tightly, passively, unlike her. The warm water washed the lingering blood down the drain and slicked her hair to her neck uncomfortably, but Mari still shivered and stared at the corner of the shower. Even Tikki’s weakly whispered “Marinette” couldn’t pull her focus back to her surroundings.Adrien/Chat finds Marinette bloodied and missing a Miraculous and takes her home.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 8
Kudos: 109





	This is What You Came For

“Mari… Marinette?” Adrien knocked gently on the bathroom door, not wanting to startle the wounded girl.   
Sitting in Adrien’s large shower, Marinette hugged her knees tightly, passively, unlike her. The warm water washed the lingering blood down the drain and slicked her hair to her neck uncomfortably, but Mari still shivered and stared at the corner of the shower. Even Tikki’s weakly whispered “Marinette” couldn’t pull her focus back to her surroundings.  
Adrien knocked again, and then looked at Plagg worriedly when there was still no response; he steeled his nerve and opened the door. 

“Hey, Marinette, I’m going to get you a towel and then let’s get you warm, ok?” Adrien touched Marinette on the shoulder, as he shut off the water. Then, not caring about getting wet, he wrapped the dry towel around his friend and steered her out of the bathroom, grabbing a smaller towel as he guided her out the door, and draping it over her head, he gently dried her hair. Using the action to cover as he checked her bleeding earlobe.   
Discreetly checking her right earlobe, he assured himself that her other Miraculous was still in place, and caught sight of Tikki, cradled in the towel, but pretended to ignore her.   
Adrien was surprised at how much Marinette seemed to have shut down in the time since ‘Chat Noir’ had ‘dropped her off with a friend.’

-2 hours ago-

Chat Noir ran his usual patrol a little slow most nights that there had been an akuma attack. He told himself that it was so that he wouldn’t miss anything and that it would be easier for Ladybug to find him, should she be restless as well… And maybe both were somewhat true, he would not admit to not wanting to go home, out loud anyway.  
His musing was interrupted by a figure waving to him from an alley. Squinting didn’t help him make out who it might be, the lights in this part of the arrondisement always messed with his night vision. Chat chanced moving from his perch to a closer vantage. When he recognized Marinette, he leapt down to stand in front of her. Preparing a witty quip, he let it die unsaid as she threw herself into his arms, practically begging him to take her somewhere far away from her home.   
“Somewhere safe, Please, Chaton!”

Chat picked up the distraught classmate and swung them to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Almost before he had set her on her feet, she was pacing, and that is when he noticed the blood, running down her neck.  
“I’m so sorry Chat! She took it… I don’t know how she got into my room. “  
Marinette gingerly reached towards her left ear but thought better of touching the ruined earlobe. “I woke up when I felt her grab one of my earrings and I pushed her away, but she hit me... and I... I just had to get out...”  
She stopped and swayed slightly, hugging herself. Chat moved closer and she buried her face in his chest. “She took one of my Miraculous, Chat!”  
Mari looked up at Chat Noir’s shocked face, tears in her eyes. “Lila knows I’m Ladybug! I can’t… I can’t go home!”

Chat thought for a moment, sluggish thoughts struggling to catch up. Hugging Marinette tightly, he whispered in an awestruck voice, “My Lady?!” Then the full import of everything else Marinette had told him sunk in.   
His face fell in fear, “Is... Is Tikki?” Chat couldn’t complete the thought, horrified at what it would mean to Marinette as well as Paris if Tikki was gone.

Marinette shook her head, “She’s weak,” reaching into her purse, she gently picked the pale pink Kwami up and showed her to Chat, “and we can’t transform, but I have her…”

Chat Noir touched Marinette on the neck, showing her his bloodstained fingertips, “Bugaboo? Can I take you to a friend’s house? Somewhere safe, I promise, but we need to get this stopped...”

Chat had taken Marinette to Adrien’s house, despite her initial protests that she didn’t want to endanger her friend. And if Chat seemed a little too familiar with where the shower was in her crush’s house, she was too lost in other worries to take not of it.   
After convincing his Lady to take a shower to wash off the night’s trauma, Adrien had then left, to do recon at Marinette’s house… He quickly scribbled a note for her parents, letting them know she was safe and that “Ladybug and Chat Noir were protecting her from an Akuma…” Not too much of a lie. And then Chat took a few of Marinette’s favorite clothes, certain she would need a change before this was all over.

Upon returning home, he de-transformed and waited for Marinette, but then she hadn’t come out…

-Present-

Adrien finished drying Marinette’s hair and then gently pressed the damp hand towel to her earlobe, flinching as Marinette hissed in pain, seeming to see him for the first time.   
“A... Adrien? What’s going on?  
Marinette’s teeth began to chatter with cold, or with reaction, Adrien couldn’t tell. He grabbed the comforter from his bed and wrapped it around her before answering.   
“Chat Noir dropped you off here, he told me Lila had attacked you?” Adrien paused.  
“And then he went to check on your parents, who are fine, by the way… He said it looked like Lila had left right after you did.” Adrien steered the shivering girl to the couch, sitting beside her and dabbing the towel gently at the seeping earlobe, as he talked.   
He brought you some clothes so you can rest easy while he and…” Catching himself before he accidently said ‘you’, Adrien stopped talking, and pointed at her ear.  
“I think this is done bleeding, but I don’t know whether I should bandage it to be safe?”

Adrien got up and took the bloodied towel, burying it in the trashcan as he walked to his medicine cabinet, blowing out a puff of air in relief. “Why don’t you tell her, kid? Your Lady is, right now, sitting on your couch, why didn’t you let her know that you know?” Adrien huffed out an unamused laugh.   
“I… I can’t, Plagg. She’s the one who has always maintained that we need to be anonymous, and I have to... She’s still in shock right now…” Adrien put his face in his hands and let a low groan escape as he pulled down. He leaned heavily on his elbows on the bathroom counter, head in his hands. “She’s strong, Plagg. But anymore ‘excitement’ may be too much. I can be strong too. I can wait for her.” A small smile spread across the hero’s face. “Have waited for her…”

Marinette sat on the couch, with Tikki in her lap. The small Kwami looked smaller and more defenseless than she had when she had been ill, before.   
“I should find Master Fu…” Marinette stopped and realized, as she said it that Fu was gone. The loss of her mentor hit her yet again, and with a sob she started to break down, “Tikki what can I do?”  
“Trust your friends Marinette!” Let Adrien and Chat Noir help you; we can’t transform but that has happened before, and I will be alright. We just need to use the other Miraculous.” Tikki put her tiny paw on Marinette’s thumb, “Don’t lose heart, Marinette! That is the only way we will lose.”


End file.
